Chatbot Safety: Data Risks & Scams Explained

Chatbots collect, store, and often use your conversation data. This means what you type into a chat window could be at risk. Your conversations with chatbots are typically stored, and this stored data can be targeted. For instance, a flaw in the McDonald's AI recruitment chatbot McHire in 2025 allowed researchers to access data from over 64 million job applicants. This happened because administrator access was protected by a simple default password. Many major AI chatbots use opt-out privacy systems by default. This means your conversations and any personal information within them are stored and used to train the model, unless you explicitly choose otherwise. It's often hard to find this opt-out option, and many users don't even know their information is being stored. Criminals can also create fake chatbots that impersonate trusted organizations. They do this to steal personal information or login credentials. Also, AI-powered chatbots are making phishing and social engineering scams more convincing by generating realistic conversations. What's interesting is that chatbot answers aren't always accurate. They can generate plausible-sounding but incorrect information and present it with confidence. The bottom line is you need to understand these risks before sharing any sensitive personal information with a chatbot.